Scientists have now made the most comprehensive tally yet of deep-sea exploration — 43,681 dive records dating back to 1958 — and found that humans have directly seen less than 0.001% of the deep ocean floor, an area roughly the size of Rhode Island, leaving the vast seafloor across 66% of Earth’s surface essentially unobserved.
Ewine van Dishoeck, astronomer: ‘We are the first generation who can bring the question of life on other planets from the realm of philosophy into real science’